November is a crucial month for climate change and health. Representatives and negotiators from around the world are meeting in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, for the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) to build on previous agreements to reduce urgently reduce greenhouse gas emissions, build resilience and adapt – despite challenges – to the inevitable impacts of climate change.
Climate change and the crises it has triggered have long been clear health emergencies. The WHO and its partners have long been sounding the alarm, but their actions have been dangerously inconsistent and far too slow.
In the WHO European Region, last summer we witnessed escalating heatwaves, droughts and wildfires, all of which had an impact on the health of our populations.
The region just experienced the hottest summer and hottest August on record, according to the European Union’s Copernicus climate change service. In addition to high temperatures, we have battled devastating wildfires across the region, which have caused the highest carbon emissions since 2007, polluted our air, killed many people – including, often, first responders emergency services line – displaced many others and destroyed vast swathes of life. earth for many years to come.
Heat waves kill
Heat stress, when the body cannot cool itself, is the leading cause of weather-related deaths in the European Region. Extreme temperatures can also exacerbate chronic diseases, including cardiovascular, respiratory and cerebrovascular diseases, as well as conditions related to diabetes.
Based on national data submitted so far, it is estimated that at least 15,000 people will have died specifically from heat in 2022. Of these, almost 4,000 deaths in Spain, more than 1,000 in Portugal, more than 3,200 in the United Kingdom and around 4,500 deaths were reported in Germany by health authorities during the 3 summer months.
This estimate is expected to increase as more countries report excess heat deaths. For example, the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE) reported that more than 11,000 more people died between June 1 and August 22, 2022 compared to the same period in 2019, the last year before the COVID-19 pandemic. INSEE estimates that these figures are “likely to be explained by the heatwave that occurred in mid-July, after a first heatwave episode in mid-June”.
Temperatures in Europe have warmed significantly over the period 1961-2021, at an average rate of around 0.5°C per decade. It is the region that is warming the fastest, according to a report released this week by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Extreme temperatures have claimed more than 148 000 lives in the European Region over the past 50 years. In just one year, we have lost at least 15,000 more lives.
In 2021, high-impact weather and climate events caused hundreds of deaths and directly affected more than half a million people. About 84% of these events were floods or storms.
These health impacts that populations in our Region are currently experiencing with a 1.1°C increase in global average temperature only give a glimpse of what we can expect if the temperature increases by 2°C or more compared to pre-industrial levels. This should sound the alarm for our future in a changing climate.
Concerted climate action was needed yesterday – but we can still act
In the coming decades, increasing exposure and vulnerability to heatwaves and other extreme weather events will lead to more illness and death unless countries take meaningful adaptation and mitigation actions. drastic measures to combat climate change.
Adaptation means making health systems and societies ready for the future. For example, heat-health action plans are essential to adapting to climate change because they protect communities from heat-related deaths and illnesses. More than 20 countries in the Region have implemented heat-health plans. While this is encouraging, it is far from enough. For plans to be effective, we need strong cross-sector coordination and cooperation. If we are better prepared for a warmer region, we will save many lives.
Mitigation means going beyond preparing for the impacts of climate change to being part of the solution. Our health systems and societies must be climate resilient, sustainable and low carbon. We can do our part by ensuring that climate change is fully integrated, internalized and institutionalized in our health systems, accelerating the delivery of sustainable, net-zero emissions health care to improve individual, societal and planetary health.
We can also advocate for mitigation policies that reduce emissions while providing multiple health and societal benefits by simultaneously tackling climate change and air pollution, which kills around 550,000 people in our Region each year out of a global total estimated at 7 million.
At individual and community levels, we all need to significantly reduce our carbon emissions through more sustainable production and consumption patterns and by adopting a comprehensive and rapid transition to clean, renewable energy. We have the technology – we must find ways to make it accessible to all countries and implement it quickly.
Health at COP27
This month, COP27 will be particularly crucial for us here in the European region and for people around the world. Governments must demonstrate much stronger political will and act more quickly in implementing the legally binding global Paris Agreement on climate change, so that we can all work together to achieve a greener future. sustainable, low carbon and healthier.
WHO is once again supporting negotiations through the COP27 Health Pavilion, bringing together the global health community and partners to ensure that health and equity are placed at the center of the debate. The Alliance for Transformative Action on Climate and Health – created to support countries that have committed to COP26 health initiatives on climate-resilient and sustainable low-carbon health systems – is also taking action. scale to use the collective power of WHO Member States to achieve this goal and integrate health into any plan to combat climate change.
We can never say it enough: we must together fight climate change effectively. We need more action in our European region and beyond. We must adapt to climate change and, more importantly, mitigate it to save more lives. And we must do it now if we want to prevent the climate crisis from turning into an irreversible climate catastrophe for our Region and our entire planet.
